[Sidenote: Repeat Map No. 32.] Finally, we must note that a portion of the Bombay Presidency lies far away to the northwest, detached from the remainder. This is the province of Sind, for the most part a desert area, but containing the delta of the river Indus, which is a second Egypt in fertility, for there the alluvium brought down by the great river from the distant Himalaya mountains is deposited, and water is available by irrigation from the same distant source. Curiously, Sind resembles Egypt in its human settlements. At the head of the delta where the distributaries divide, and therefore at the lowest convenient crossing place of the river, is situated the city of Hyderabad, corresponding to Cairo, and on the sea front westward of the deltaic mouths is Karachi, corresponding to Alexandria. [Sidenote: Repeat Map No. 27.] Sind was conquered by Sir Charles Napier in 1843. The Sindi population is for the most part Musulman, and engaged in agriculture, but the significance of Sind has altered since it was first added to the directly ruled British territories. At first communication with the Punjab was relatively difficult, for the Indus is not navigated with the same ease as is the Ganges. In the days before railways it was therefore natural that the new province should be administered from Bombay by means of sea communications. To-day, however, with the construction of the North Western Railway from Karachi up the river Indus, the commercial relations of Sind have come to be with the Punjab, of which Karachi is now the great port, although it is still subordinate to Bombay for purposes of government. It is interesting and significant to observe that the coastline of all India is now under direct British rule, except for the little States of Cochin and Travancore, in the far south, near Cape Comorin, and the peninsula of Kathiawar and the island of Cutch, which are divided among a multitude of petty chieftains subordinate to the Government of Bombay. Thus the larger Native States, being isolated from the sea, there is little fear of foreign intrigue in India such as we had to contend with during the French wars. There are a few diminutive scraps of territory belonging to the French and Portuguese Governments, but these are too insignificant to break the general rule, and moreover they are engirt landward by directly ruled British territory. The largest of them is at Goa, on the west coast, south of Bombay, the last remnant of the great Portuguese dominion in the Indies. -------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LECTURE VI. --- =RAJPUTANA.= --- THE FEUDATORY STATES.